Thorsten Wiegand

Contact

I studied physics at the University Marburg where I completed my graduate work in theoretical ecology. I then moved in 1992 as Postdoc to the Department of Ecological Modelling at the UFZ in Leipzig. In 1999 I obtained my habilitation in Theoretical Ecology at the LMU Munich. Between 1999 and 2010 I was teaching regularly at the Escuela para Graduados Facultad de Agronomia - Universidad de Buenos Aires. I serve as subject editor of Ecography and Oikos, and in the editorial board of Landscape Ecology. Over the last 6 years I was PI of the ERC advanced grant project SPATIODIVERSITY

Research

I am a theoretical ecologist with more than 25 years research experience in question-driven research in biodiversity and conservation. I am working in close collaboration with field ecologists to conduct model-data integration and synthesis. My research centers broadly on spatial ecology and the investigation of the role of species interactions, spatial processes and structures for population and community dynamics, community assembly, and biodiversity.

My primary research goals are (1) to broaden the theory of population and community ecology and to integrate them with landscape ecology to encompass an explicit consideration of spatially distributed processes, and to develop methods to adapt individual-based simulation models optimally for ecological applications. To approach these goals I use several complementary approaches:

spatially-explicit and individual-based models as tools for studying the spatiotemporal dynamics of populations and communities, including plant communities and animal populations,

spatial point pattern analysis for characterizing pattern over a range of spatial and temporal scales as a means of identifying critical, pattern forming ecological processes and for testing ecological theory, and

development of inverse methods of model parameterization and model selection for individual-based and spatially-explicit simulation models to facilitates the confrontation of models with data.

My lab applies these approaches to study systems including tropical and temperate forest communities, shrub and grassland communities in South Africa and Argentina, fairy circles, orchids, treeline dynamics, endangered species such as brown bears (Ursus arctos), European lynx (Lynx lynx), spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca), Jaguar (Panthera onca), and tiger (Panthera tigris). For more details see Research

ERC advanced grant SPATIODIVERSITY

Between 2009 and 2015, and beyond, most of my time has been absorbed by the ERC advanced grant project SPATIODIVERSITY. The European Reseach Council ERC Advanced Grants allow exceptional established research leaders who have made exceptional contributions to research in terms of originality and significance to pursue frontier research of their choice.

The broad objective of the ERC project is to advance the understanding in one of the biggest and most persistent challenges in contemporary ecology: to explain the high diversity in ecological communities such as tropical forests. To accomplish this goal, I took a radically different approach than previous attempts and adopted a spatially explicit perspective that is allowing me to take significant steps towards a Unified Spatial Theory of Biodiversity.